Slide fastener with coupling coils on knitted tapes

ABSTRACT

Two monofilamentary polyamide coils of garland profile, each with a multiplicity of substantially planar loops carrying coupling heads, are interengageably carried on resepective marginal zones of a pair of warp-knitted stringer tapes whose fabric has a pattern of longitudinal wales and transverse courses formed by warp and weft threads, respectively. The weft threads zig-zag in interleaved relationship to form elongate undulations of generally triangular shape whose vertices define the courses, each undulation spanning a group of four wales; with these undulations pointing alternately toward and away from the tape edge confronting the other tape, alternate courses terminating short of that edge to provide a series of weft-free regions in the coil-supporting marginal zone. The loops of the coil, registering with the courses that terminate at the tape edge, are fastened to the tape by stitching which passes through the centers of the weft-free regions between wales of the marginal zone.

SLIDE FASTENER WITH COUPLING COILS ON KNITTED TAPES,

Inventors: Alfons Friihlich; Marie-Luise Cappel, both-of Essen; Ernst Stiibiger, Giessen, all of Germany Opti-Holding AG, Glarus, Switzerland Filed: Apr. 23, 1973 Appl. No.: 353,771

Related U.S. Application Data Continuation-impart of Ser. Nos. 82,323, Oct. 20, 1970, Pat. No. 3,757,54l, and Ser. No. 82,326, Oct. 20, i970, Pat. No. 3,762,002.

Assignee:

Foreign Application Priority Data Apr. 4, 1970 Germany ..20l6l39 Apr. 4, 1970 Germany ....201 6 ]f l5 U.S. Cl 24/205.l C, 24/205.l6 C, 66/193 Int. Cl. A44b 19/10, D04b 23/12 Field of Search 24/205.l C; 66/195 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Weinberg... 24/205.16R

Koppenburg 66/l90 I 1 Oct. 15,1974

Primary ExaminerBernard A. Gelak Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Karl F. Ross; Herbert Dubno 57 ABSTRACT Two monofilamentary polyamide coils of garland profile, each with a multiplicity of substantially planar loops carrying coupling heads, are interengageably carried on resepective marginal zones of a pair of warp-knitted stringer tapes whose fabric has a pattern of longitudinal wales and transverse courses formed by warp and weft threads, respectively. The weft threads zig-zag in interleaved relationship to form elongate undulations of generally triangular shape whose vertices define the courses, each undulation spanning a group of four wales; with these undulations pointing alternately toward and away from the tape edge confronting the other tape, alternate courses terminating short of that edge to provide a series of weft-free regions in the coil-supporting marginal zone. The loops of the coil, registering with the courses that terminate at the tape edge, are fastened to the tapeby stitching which passes through the centers of the weft-free regions between walcsof the marginal zone.

7 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures CROSS-REFERENCE TO COPENDING APPLICATIONS i This application is a continuation-in-part of our copending applications Ser. Nos. 82,323 and 82,326, both filed Oct. 20, 1970, now U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,757,541 and 3,762,002 respectively. I

FIELD OF THE INVENTION Our present invention relates to a slide fastener whose two halves comprise a pair of complementary coils with coupling heads formed on their turns, these coils being supported on marginal zones of respective stringer tapes of the warp-knit type. Such a slide fastener has also been disclosed in our commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,836 of the same filing date as our two aforementioned copending applications.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The simple expedient of fastening a coil to its supporting tape by stitching has not been found satisfactory in the case of woven tapes. Since the thickness of the stitching needle generally exceeds the width of the interstices of the woven fabric, its passage through that fabric tends to distort the thread structure and to-deform the fastener as a whole.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The fabric structure of a stringer tape utilized in a slide-fastener half according to our invention forms a pattern of longitudinally extending wales paralleling the guide edge of the tape (i.e., the edge facing the other fastener half), these wales being interlinked by laid-in weft threads zig-zagging in elongate interleaved undulations across that pattern to form a set of traverse courses. The undulations of these weft threads, pointing alternately toward and away from the guide edge, have vertices defining the courses; because of this alternate orientation, a first group of courses (e.g., every odd-numbered one) terminate at the guide edge whereas a second group of courses (thus the evennumbered ones) terminate shortof that edge at an inward boundary of a marginal zone whose width equals the length of the undulations spanning a plurality of wales (preferably not less than three). Thus, the marginal zone contains weft-free portions, inline with the second group of courses, which in accordance with our invention are utilized to receive the threads that form the stitching by which the fastener coil is attached to the tape. The spacing of the turns of this coil is correlated with that of the courses of the fabric so that each turn overlies a course of the first group within the marginal zone. In this way, the coil is supported by fully developed parts of the fabric whereas the, stitching traverses other parts in which only the Wale-forming warp is present-Since the diameter of a stitching needle may exceed that of the coil-forming filament, the absence of the weft threads in the area of penetration prevents any significant deformation of the fabric upon passage of the needle between adjoining wales. Advantageously,

such penetration takes place about midway in the coilsupporting marginal zone, between the second and the third-Wale (counting from the guide edge) in the case of a marginal zone spanning three to five wales. On the reverse side of the fabric opposite the coil, the wales may-form longitudinal ribs between which the stitching is accommodated to act as a reinforcement for the marginal zone.

In the preferred embodiment of our invention, as more fully described hereinafter, the coil has a garlandshaped longitudinal profile as viewed perpendicularly to the plane of the fabric. Such a profile, known per se, forms each turn into a loop which lies in a traverse plane, namely a plane substantially bisecting the undulations of the courses of the first group respectively aligned with these turns pursuant to our invention. With the diameter of the coil filament slightly less than the course width, the stitching needle finds ample room to pass between the coil-supporting courses during attachment of the coil to the tape.

The coil, which advantageously consists of monofilamentary polyamide (nylon), may surround a longitudinally extending filler cord of conventional type traversed by the stitching thread.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TI=IE DRAWING SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION In FIGS. 1 and 2 we have shown two substantially identical slide-fastener halves comprising respective tapes 1a and lb, with closely spaced guide edges 5a, 5b, which support a pair of monofilamentary nylon coils 2a and 2b of garland-shaped profile as viewed in FIG. 1. Each of these coils includes a multiplicity of turns 12a, 12b forming loops (best seen in FIG. 2) which lie in respective planes P P etc. for thecoil 2a and P P etc. for the coil 2b, these planes being perpendicular to the confrontin'gtape edges 5a, 5b. The shanks of each loop, which coincide in the view of FIG. 1, are interconnected by bight portions formed in conventional manner with coupling heads 13a, 13b, these coupling heads engaging one another upon the interfittin'g of the turns 12a, l2bof the two coils by the usual slider. Filler cords 9a and 9b of cellulosic or other filamentary material pass longitudinally through these turns.

Threads 81; and 8b pass in chain stitch around the derside of each tape. The ribs 6a and 6b are formed by wales resulting from the knitting of respective warp threads 3a, 3b, these wales being interlinked by laid-in weft threads 4a, 4b. The weft threads, as clearly shown in FIG. I, extend along zig-zag lines with elongate transverse undulations which are interleaved and whose length is such that each undulation spans four wales 6a or 6b. Courses lla 11.1,, etc., centered on planes P P etc., are defined by undulations of wefts 4a pointing toward the guide edge 5a; these courses ex tend all the way to that edge from points lying inwardly of the opposite tape edge a. Similarly, courses 1112 1th,, etc., centered on planes P P etc., are defined by undulations of wefts 4b pointing toward the guide edge 5b, theselatter courses extending allthe way to that'edge from points located inwardly of the opposite tape edge 15b. On the other hand, intervening courses lla 1111,, etc. of tape la, centered on planes P P etc. and defined by oppositely pointing undulations of wefts 4a, extend from edge 15a to a boundary 14a of a marginal zone 2,, which has weft-free regions .16a 16m, etc. in line with the courses 1 la 11a,, etc.; analogously, weft-free regions 16b,, 16b;,, etc. exist in line with courses 11b 11b etc. which are defined by oppositely pointing undulations of wefts 4b and extend between edge 15b and a boundary 14b of a marginal zone 2,, of tape lb.

lt'will be noted that the loops 12a overlie the courses l la,, 11:15,, etc. within zone Z whereas the loops 2b overlie the courses 11b 11b etc. within zone 2,; stitching 8a passes through the fabric in weft-free regions 160 16a etc., between wales 3a thereof, whereas stitching 8b traverses weft-free regions 16b 16b etc. of zone 2,, between wales 3b. More specifically, these stitchings lie between the second and third wales of their respective marginal zones as counted from edges 50 and 5b.

The knitted fabrics formed by the warp and weft threads 3a, 4a and 3b, 4b can be thermally fixed after the stichings 8a and 8b are in place.

FIG. 3 shows the lay of a warp 3' (representative of threads 3a and 3b of both tapes) in a simple chain or fringe knit as used in the basic pattern of the fabric of FIG. 1. In this 0-l/l-O knit pattern the width of each wale equals the spacing of a .pair of knitting needles whose positions have been diagrammatically indicated by dots.

As shown in FIG. 4, a warp 3" could be laid in a twill chain to form a chain spanning two knitting needles;

1 such a twill pattern could also be used to form' the wider edge ribs shown at 15a, 15b and similar edge ribs replacing the two pairs of ribs 6a and 6b (FIGS. 1 and 2) between stitchings 8a and 8b. The notation for this twill-knit pattern is 2-0/0-2.

FIG. 5 shows a weft thread 4 laid in according to a 4-4/0-0 pattern, thus spanning four knitting needles and a like number of wales of the fringe-knit type shown in FIG. 3. Two wales would be spannedif they.

were chained in the twill-knit pattern of FIG. 4.

As described in our application Ser. No. 82,323, the two tapes 1a and 1b could be knitted simultaneously and temporarily interlinked by a connecting filament which is removed after the mounting and fastening of the coupling coils 2a, 2b.

We claim:

l. A slide-fastener half comprising:

a stringer tape with a warp-knitted basic pattern of longitudinally extending wales paralleling an edge of said tape, said pattern further including laid-in weft threads interlinking said wales and zig-zagging in elongate interleaved undulations across said basic pattern, each undulation spanning a plurality of wales, the undulations of each weft thread pointing alternately toward and away from said edge whereby a multiplicity of courses transverse to said edge are defined by the vertices of respective sets of interleaved undulations, a marginal zone of said tape adjacent said edge being free of undulations with vertices pointing away from said edge whereby alternate courses, forming part of a first and a second group, terminate at said edge'and at an inward boundary of said marginal zone, respec- 7 tively;

coil overlying said marginal zone and extending alongside said edge, said coil having turns registering with respective courses of saidfirst group, said turns being provided with coupling heads; and stitching securing said coil to said tape, said stitching passing through said marginal zone between v wales thereof at weft-free portions of said zone in line with respective coursesof said second group.

2. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1 wherein said coil has a generally garland-shaped longitudinal profile, the turns thereof forming loops in planes perpendicular to said edge, said planes substantially bisecting the undulations of the courses of said first group.

3. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1 wherein said marginal zone encompasses at least three wales, said stitching passing substantially midway through said zone.

4. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1 wherein said coil is a thermoplastic filament.

5. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 4 wherein said filament has a diameter slightly less than th course width.

6. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1, further comprising a filler cord embraced by the turns of said coil, said stitching passing through said filler cord.

7. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1 wherein said tape has a smooth upper surface supporting said coil and a lower surface with ribs formed by said wales, said stitching being received between said ribs at said lower surface.

. I i l 

1. A slide-fastener half comprising: a stringer tape with a warp-knitted basic pattern of longitudinally extending wales paralleling an edge of said tape, said pattern further including laid-in weft threads interlinking said wales and zig-zagging in elongate interleaved undulations across said basic pattern, each undulation spanning a plurality of wales, the undulations of each weft thread pointing alternately toward and away from said edge whereby a multiplicity of courses transverse to said edge are defined by the vertices of respective sets of interleaved undulations, a marginal zone of said tape adjacent said edge being free of undulations with vertices pointing away from said edge whereby alternate courses, forming part of a first and a second group, terminate at said edge and at an inward boundary of said marginal zone, respectively; a coil overlying said marginal zone and extending alongside said edge, said coil having turns registering with respective courses of said first group, said turns being provided with coupling heads; and stitching securing said coil to said tape, said stitching passing through said marginal zone between wales thereof at weft-free portions of said zone in line with respective courses of said second group.
 2. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1 wherein said coil has a generally garland-shaped longitudinal profile, the turns thereof forming loops in planes perpendicular to said edge, said planes substantially bisecting the undulations of the courses of said first group.
 3. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1 wherein said marginal zone encompasses at least three wales, said stitching passing substantially midway through said zone.
 4. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1 wherein said coil is a thermoplastic filament.
 5. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 4 wherein said filament has a diameter slightly less than the course width.
 6. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1, further comprising a filler cord embraced by the turns of said coil, said stitching passing through said filler cord.
 7. A slide-fastener half as defined in claim 1 wherein said tape has a smooth upper surface supporting said coil and a lower surface with ribs formed by said wales, said stitching being received between said ribs at said lower surface. 